Fun but has some issues

Note: Square Enix has since monetized this game out the wazoo (which is saying something, considering where it started), and its 10 times as laggy as it used to be. Ive stopped playing, but I pop in every now and then. Still a fun game, assuming youve stockpiled enough to get around the major ammo, health, and weapon nerfs, but not so much for people who played from the start and knew how fun it used to be. Also, probably a year after release, and its only released 1 new zone out of 3 since it was first released. Its been several months since Tibet was released.

Personally, I don’t care that it’s based on another game - I wouldn’t have played that game were it not for this version. I’ve been playing and watching “Tomb Raider” games and various franchise things since I was in 1st grade. A free “Tomb Raider” themed game I can play on my phone with one finger? Sign me up. I downloaded this like three days after it was released. And it has gorgeous animation.

Maybe this is because Tibet is supposed to be harder than the previous zones, but the camera is very slow to turn and doesn’t always look at the right angles. Coupled with the frequent scenery blockage (e.g., craggy cliffs), this makes it hard to see things. Sometimes you literally cannot attack before getting hit because the camera doesn’t move fast enough to give you targets before said targets fire at you. Most obstacles are last minute, typically due to the frequent turning and slow moving camera to the point that choices are constantly made split-second and about half of them are sheer luck, not skill. Oh there was a bridge there? Glad I accidentally moved her to the left - something that’s happened a great number of times at this point. Then there are the targets you still can’t fire at because the camera is too low or they’re on top of a hill and only visible just when they’re out of range and you have to attempt to kill them when you can se the corner of their foot on the side of the screen because if you hit they’ve thrown a rock in your face. The mini spiders are nigh impossible to see and the best - really only way - to get them is by firing until you hit them and always fire at those spots because trying to find them visually is pointless.

It’s also really irritating how they basically downgraded everything. I like the new visual scheme - with how you have levels and how it made finding artifacts a LOT less irritating and how achievements give you GEMS instead of pointless coins and how drop times are shorter. But before the update, the only thing I hadn’t upgraded was the vehicle suit. After the upgrade, I had to RE-upgrade everything, and all my weapons were weaker. I can’t finish the last two levels because my weapons aren’t strong enough to kill the ogres before they kill me and if I keep trying to get there via levels instead of infinite running, I’ll run out of ammo because the pistols are useless when not maxed and if I run out of secondary ammo, well… It’s a nightmare. I don’t mind all the extra vanity stuff (e.g., different skins for guns and clothing), but I wish they’d spend more time fixing the camera and working on the next zone. I’d also happily pay the average rate to take down ads, but there isn’t an option for that, so the stupid things pop up everywhere.

cmccrzy about Lara Croft: Relic Run, v1.10.0